Explore Your Options: Many Alternative and Supplemental Financing Sources Exist for Business

Explore Your Options: Many Alternative and Supplemental Financing Sources Exist for Business

October 10, 2011

So, you're looking for financing for your business to allow it to remain viable through these difficult and volatile economic times. But you find that all your traditional sources of financing have dried up. What can you do, and where can you look for such needed funding?

There are several non-traditional avenues of obtaining needed business capital that can be complementary to any existing financing that you may already have in place for your business. These alternative sources may include quasi-public bond financing, several federal and state tax-credit programs, and private financing. They each have certain advantages, but in order to receive them, you must relinquish something in return.

In the area of quasi-public bond financing, the Mass. Development Finance Agency (MassDevelopment) has a number of available programs that can be utilized to provide financing for both for-profit and not-for-profit business entities. For example, tax exempt bonds, which are exempt from federal taxes and, in certain cases, state taxes, can provide the lowest-interest-rate option for certain types of projects, including real estate development and new equipment purchases. In better economic times, these bonds were traditionally bundled into large-denomination packages and sold on Wall Street to institutional investors.

The more likely scenario in today's marketplace is that such bonds would be purchased directly by your company's current bank or possibly another area financial institution. The fact that the interest income received by the holders of these bonds is exempt from federal and (in many cases) state tax allows for a lower-than-market interest rate to be offered, which, depending on the amount of such bonds, can provide a substantial savings over the life of the bond.

According to information contained on MassDevelopment's Web site, such financing must be eligible for tax-exempt financing under the federal tax code, ...

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